Look at the different names of Yoga asanas…

Chaturanga Dandasana

Viprit Dandasana

Dandasana

Let us look at the first Asana…Chaturanga Dandasana…if done repetitively it’s no lesser than a dand…a punishment…yet this one is an integral posture of Suryanamaskar. Chatur means four, Anga means a limb or a part thereof, Danda means a staff. If practiced regularly 40/50 times daily, a practitioner will develop powerful wrists, triceps and shoulders, throws off lethargy of the body and fatigue of the brain, rejuvenates the entire body and makes one feel lively and vigorous. This is part of Niyama…the second Anga of Ashtanga Yoga…in this kind of practice, a practitioner generates Tapas…tapas means to blaze, burn, shine, suffer pain or consume by heat. It therefore means a burning effort under all circumstances to achieve a definite goal in life. It involves purification, self discipline and austerity. The whole science of character building may be regarded as a practice of tapas. Life without tapas, is like a heart without love. Without tapas, the very life becomes lifeless…with this thought let me now ask you where do you find the connection of this self discipline, punishment, austerity with your life…does it not take you to the good old school days where the dand of a teacher gave you the inner desire to be free and showed you a purpose of studying and doing better the very next day…never had a vision of life as a child but only thought of the very next day…such is the practice of asanas…such are the Yogdands…it takes us back in the life clock and we the practitioners with loving fondness look forward to the next day’s practice…we do tapas, we suffer, we shine and we get consumed by heat only to come back the very next day and do the very same practice to see the light of that day. Our practice of Yogdands thus awakens in us the loving, sleeping child…such is the outcome of Dands. It is this desire that makes a practitioner ageless…they stop ageing…it is this loving innocence of a child that makes them shine…like a child a practitioner does not yearn for name, fame or health and wealth…only a burning desire to come back the very next day to the same mat and learn something new, accept the punishment and be happy at the end without looking forward to other persons acknowledgement or approval.